moonstones and tentacles
by Aquarius Galuxy
Summary: "Speak English?" Kurogane said. "You seem to understand me so far." / At that, the creature smiled slowly, brought its rice-speckled tentacle to its mouth, licked it clean. "You greatly underestimate our kind, Kuro-pipi." [KuroFai, ongoing]
1. Chapter 1

**Fic notes:**

1\. Written for clampkink. Fic was originally supposed to be a one-off thing. Bad news? It grew and grew. Still without plot (more of a slice-of-life thing? If you can call Kurogane finding an octopus shapeshifter slice-of-life)  
2\. Written late at night or with husband around, so I'm usually distracted or functioning on little sleep when the parts are written. Feel free to point out any errors/discrepancies!  
3\. Updates will not be regular. I write a few parts for clampkink, then edit and bundle them up for posting. :P

 _Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and its characters do not belong to me._

* * *

 **moonstones and tentacles**

 **Part 1**

It was hot out. Although coastal temperatures were regulated by the sea currents, summer was still summer, and the sun beat down harshly in thousands of little stinging rays, worming into Kurogane's skin like he was beneath a broiler cranked on high. It heated his arms, sent sweat trickling down the back of his neck even though he had barely begun to weave through the handful of visitors on the beach.

If only that damn white thing hadn't got stuck in the wheels of his ill-tempered car. He was going to have to talk to Tomoyo. Sure, he didn't mind going out to the seashore looking for bits of special debris. Sure, he didn't mind whiling away his entire day off for her sake. But spending hours trying to fix his car because her shameless, shapeless pet decided to hijack it, and then heading out when the sun was high overhead (because he couldn't go back on his word, he'd _promised_ he was going to return with something) was utterly beyond his idea of fun.

He clenched his jaw and trudged across gritty, tan sand that had formed into hundreds of little dips and hills, each determined to slow him down. The waves had begun to leave a short slope of dense, dark sand behind as the tide retreated. Still, it would be some hours yet before the water was low enough that he could try searching for Tomoyo's moonstones. He sighed and grumbled beneath his breath.

Kurogane typically started on the ends furthest away from the parking lot, so he could work his way back along the beach through the parts that had been least picked first. On this particular beach, the sand stretched on for a ways out until the low, grass-topped bluff cut it off and extended into the glittering sea, dotted at its foot by a pile of large boulders. They seemed interesting enough. He thought to scale them before low tide was upon him—sometimes, there would be a length of untouched beach that he could explore all by himself, and their rewards were usually all the better for it.

So, Kurogane adjusted the strap of his little backpack on his broad shoulder and made his slow way to the other end of the beach. The tide hadn't gone down by much in that time, so he found footholds on a boulder by the cliff, where he could still reach it by stepping on wet sand. There wasn't anyone around to bother with him; he didn't need anyone breathing down his neck, anyway.

He rounded the blunt, weathered end of the bluff, keeping low to the boulders for stability, and as he looked up, he found the small, unexplored beach he'd expected—no paths leading down from the bluffs, no trash and footprints from previous visitors. There was even a sea cave carved into the headland that framed the other end of the beach, one that was beginning to empty out now that the tide was waning.

He took a sip of water from the bottle in his backpack, put his sandals on, and splashed down into shallow seawater before heading along the damp shore to the sea cave. The rest of the beach, he would comb later.

At first glance, the cave was just another notch in the wall, something he'd seen time and again. The entrance was a half-oval, pointed towards the top, and small rocks lay in a pile at either sides of the opening. Inside, water lapped against numerous stones. He took care to step carefully—there were things hidden in the sand that could leave one with a nasty, bloody gash.

It was a deep cave, dim and cool, and in all, it couldn't have spanned an area larger than his little living room. Kurogane searched for a low, dry rock, set his backpack on it and stretched, allowing himself to relax now that he'd completed half his journey. The faint breeze was salty, wet like seaweed, and the splashing of water on rock echoed through the cave.

His eyes took a while to adjust to the dimness. He walked all the way to the back of the cave, where the water had left piles of rock and flat, soggy sand, sweeping his gaze over the dark crevices and whirling eddies.

It felt like there was something watching him.

He whirled around, scanning the entire cave, floor to ceiling, and saw nothing. All there was was dark, shadowy rock, lichens, and water. There were his things, and—

Something gleamed in a corner of the cave. Something like metal, or glass.

He frowned, picked his way cautiously over slippery rock, wet sand sucking on the soles of his sandals. There, in the corner, was a nest of shiny objects—bottle caps, coins, shells, and even a glass bottle or two. Pieces of broken pottery lay dull and listless, and old, plastic toy soldiers were arranged around the pile, as if they had been commanded to guard this stash.

How...?

The feeling that he wasn't alone was stronger now than before, especially when he found a bed of fresh kelp, glistening and shiny and large enough that he could probably lie comfortably in it. How large must whatever lived here be, to need a nest that size?

 _Splash._

Kurogane whipped his head around at the sound, looked immediately at his backpack.

And there, frozen on one of the rocks next to his things, was a _something_.

It was nothing like he'd ever seen—limp golden hair was plastered flat against pale skin, blue eyes (blue like sea-glass crystals held up against sunlight) glittered at him. Thin, pink lips were parted in shock. Bits of white flecks dotted one corner of that mouth. He—it?—had a beautiful face. And there, the humanness stopped. The creature's neck melted into a shapeless form; large, bulbous, rock-like.

As he watched, the creature began to move; there had been a thin, tapered leg (a tentacle, he realized) reaching into his backpack. The limb was grey, the exact color and texture of rock, and as it withdrew, Kurogane saw that it was _his_ onigiri it was holding.

"Hey!" he shouted.

The creature startled. It crammed the rice ball into its mouth, leaving more specks of white on its skin, and just as quickly, it was pulling its head back into its body. Blond hair shifted, darkened and smoothed; the pale face melted into one of flat, featureless skin, and the rock-like body that he'd identified before gave an unnatural ripple, split into several more tapered limbs.

It was an octopus, he realized. Some sort of shape-shifting octopus that could take the form of a human male. And it was running away.

"Wait!" Kurogane said, took a step forward.

The octopus had half its body in the water, some limbs clinging tight to rock, and others submerged beneath the suck and splash of waves.

"You're one of the _sotus_ , aren't you." He only knew the name because Tomoyo had gone on and on about mythical sea creatures once, and she'd insisted on reading _him_ bedtime stories for a solid three months before her attention had wandered.

The octopus paused, looked back at him, dark, large eyes studying his face.

"I'm not here to hunt you," Kurogane said. (One never threatened mythical creatures, even if one never believed they existed until now.) "I was just waiting for the low tide. I'll go now."

He made to stand, careful to keep some rocks between himself and the octopus.

"I need my bag though. You can have the food."

Those watery, deep eyes flashed. Even now, they were still blue, a very deep, sea-crystal blue that swirled and changed, that he would get lost in if he stared into them for too long. The octopus hesitated. Tentacles that had been in saltwater came up to curl solidly around rock; it hauled itself back towards the blunt, low rock it had anchored itself to.

Curious, and not wanting to scare the creature, Kurogane backed away, sat himself gingerly on a flat rock, wincing when he found it was still damp. He held his hands out, palms up, wondering if the octopus people even understood the human language, or human signs of surrender.

The octopus sat back atop its rock, eyed him warily, and laid one wary tentacle onto his backpack.

Kurogane did not react; the octopus added more limbs to his bag, blue eyes fixed shrewdly on him the entire time. When it reached in and pulled another onigiri out, and Kurogane relaxed, leaning his back against the rough, uncomfortable wall of the cave, the bulbous body of the octopus rippled, and it slowly began to take the form of that same human male—blond hair, blue eyes.

He opened his mouth, popped the rice ball in and chewed slowly.

"I can bring more, if you like that." Kurogane hadn't taken his eyes off the creature—it was beyond his understanding how something like that could change its form so easily—was there bone in the blond head, or was it soft and squishy, like all the other octopuses he'd admittedly eaten (and enjoyed)? "My name is Kurogane."

The octopus swallowed, licked his lips with a pink tongue. He was looking Kurogane up and down, still suspicious, as if he might bolt any moment.

"Do you have a name?" Kurogane asked.

The other reached a tentacle into his backpack (the tips of the tentacles had changed into the solid black of his bag, whereas others had stayed grey, the exact shade of the rocks in the cave).

He'd all but given up on the _sotus_ talking, when it opened its mouth and said, in a raspy voice, "Fai."

"Fai," he repeated. "You understand me."

Fai blinked at him, like he was missing something so obvious that he shouldn't even have to ask.

"Speak English?" Kurogane said. "You seem to understand me so far."

At that, the creature smiled slowly, brought its rice-speckled tentacle to its mouth, licked it clean. "You greatly underestimate our kind, Kuro-pipi."

A spark of annoyance flared in his chest. He felt stupid, and he wanted to hit the creature, for that indulgent smile. "My name is Kurogane."

"Kuro-rin."

"Ku-ro-ga-ne." He enunciated the syllables loudly, eyelid twitching.

"Kuro-moo." Fai smiled again.

"Fuck you." He'd been patient with this bastard, even go so far as to offer to bring it food—

"You shouldn't promise what you don't mean to do," Fai said. His voice grew smoother the more he used it, and he was watching Kurogane with equal curiosity. "So, do you?"

"Do I what."

"Want to fuck me."

"The hell?" He spluttered, heat surging into his cheeks.

And as he watched, the rippling, glistening body of the octopus stretched sideways, lightened so it took on a pale, flesh tone that resembled Fai's face. He had a chest, now, and arms, and a belly. Beyond that, a mass of dark, long tentacles coiled and slithered around him.

Fai crept towards him, wrapping tentacles around rocks to haul himself closer, his movements smooth and coordinated, like flowing water. He smiled, white teeth perfect. "You haven't answered my question, Kuro-tan."

This really wasn't happening. He'd had a long day with that stupid white pet, and had to deal with traffic, and the sun, and now he was stuck facing a stupid octopus-man who butchered his name and talked about sex right upon meeting, like he had no shame at all.

"Well?" In the space of his speechlessness, the octopus had crept closer. Amusement flickered in Fai's blue, blue eyes; there was a light smile tugging on his lips. "Have you come into my lair to proposition me, Kuro-pon?"

There were still some rocks and water between them; the _sotus_ was not so stupid that he'd put himself within punching range. Of _course_ Kurogane would have the luck to stumble on the home of the most annoying creature (second to Tomoyo's white pet) he'd ever met. Of course. Tomoyo herself was the sweetest person ever, but the things related to her—her pet, her errands, the people (things) he met on her errands...

"I'm leaving," he snapped. He unfolded his arms, stood in the retreating water. Sand squished between his toes and sandals. "And you can leave me alone."

Between the scorching sun and the blessed cool shade of the cave, and the growing thorn in his side that was Fai, he'd pick the sun any day. Kurogane kept his distance from the creature, skirted around him to grab his backpack, zipped it shut. Fai watched him, curiosity plain in his eyes.

"I haven't seen you before," Fai said.

He shrugged, slung his bag over his shoulder. "I haven't visited this part of this beach."

There was a moment of silence while he scanned the shifting sand beneath the water's surface for telltale swirls of white in brown rock—the moonstones that he collected for his sister on occasion. She did things with them, some superstitious, some crafty, some who-knows-what. He didn't see any, so he strode out of the cave, water splashing against his calves.

Fai followed him.

The octopus moved at his pace, keeping his head, torso and arms as picked his way through the rocks, tentacles rippling beneath the water's surface and kicking up clouds of sand, pushing himself forward.

Kurogane turned to glare at him, the sun shining bright and dazzling in their eyes. "Stop following me."

The idiot made a face. "It's hot out here! Why do you have to run away, Kuro-puu?"

"I have things that need to be done."

Fai seemed not to have heard, instead dipping his entire body into the shallow water. The tide was so low that there wasn't enough water to submerge him fully, so he rolled around in it, his tentacles slithering with sheer grace. He lifted himself upright again, rivulets running off his face and chest. "Mmm. The water's not so bad. You should try swimming sometime."

"No."

Blue eyes (cornflower blue now, sparkling and deep like a cloudless sky) swept over him. Fai pursed his lips contemplatively, reached out to pluck at the hem of Kurogane's shorts. "You humans wear so much. Why do you even need all this?"

Kurogane swatted his hand away. Fai's skin was wet and cold. "Tch. Stop touching me."

"But you all look the same underneath. Two legs, some bits. Not all the same, of course. I've seen your people mate." Fai was staring at his crotch.

"Hey!" Kurogane snapped his fingers to bring the idiot's eyes up to his. "My eyes are here."

A sly smile crept onto the other's face. "Does Kuro-run not like to be stared at?"

He rolled his eyes, kept walking down the beach, shifting his weight on his feet so the moving sand beneath wouldn't throw him off balance. "Go find something else to ogle."

The waves pulled themselves away for a moment, and his sweeping gaze caught on something in the roiling sand. Kurogane darted forward, plunged his hand into the foam, sifting through sand. His fingers closed around a round, heavy pebble. He turned it over as he straightened, examined the alternating ripples of white and brown across its surface. It would do. He fished about in his backpack for a plastic bag to put the stone in.

"You're searching for moonstones?" Fai asked, an odd inflection in his voice.

Kurogane was just glad that the octopus wasn't climbing all over him and attempting to snatch it away. He dropped the stone into his bag with a rustle. "For someone I know. You call them moonstones too?"

Fai shrugged and looked away. He wasn't smiling now. "I believe my kind named them. It translates to 'moonstone' in your language."

It struck Kurogane, suddenly, that there had been a distinct absence of this particular rock in Fai's hoard. There had been all manner of junk—metal, glass, plastic, and even some quartz. "Why don't you collect these rocks?"

"They're everywhere. Why would I want to collect them?" He grinned again, and this time, it was brighter than before. "I like shiny things, Kuro-wan. Or manly things."

He rolled his eyes, kept on looking. Every so often, Fai would leave to swim in deeper water, poking his head out to watch as Kurogane combed the beach. The tide wasn't at its lowest yet.

"Can't you help look for them?" he tried asking. It would help cut his search shorter.

"Of course not." Fai grinned, propelled himself backwards, then circled around him, sandy-brown tentacles gleaming wetly when they lifted out of the water. "You present an amazing sight when bent over, Kuro-sir."

He flushed darkly and decided to stop talking to the idiot for a while.

Sweat had soaked through his shirt by the time they reached the other end of the beach. There were six or so pebbles in his bag, and Kurogane gulped some water down, poured a bit over his head. Cool water slicked along his scalp; he sighed with relief. Dark hair had the very worst tendency to accumulate heat.

"Will you be coming back?" Fai asked, lounging around the knee-deep water a little ways into the sea. He glanced up at the boulders leading back around the headland and beyond, and the look on his face was one of wistfulness.

 _Not anytime soon,_ was what Kurogane was about to say (because it would have been his default answer). Instead, he returned with a question of his own. "Don't you talk to anyone else? There's plenty of people just behind the rock."

But he knew even before Fai replied that the creature hadn't spoken to (or even met) anyone in a while. His voice had been unpracticed, and he had been so wary of Kurogane at first.

Fai smiled secretively. "I'm royalty, you know. I shouldn't have to go to people. They come to me if they want to talk."

Kurogane scoffed.

"Will you be coming back?" Fai asked again. He submerged himself in water, then pulled his glistening torso out and shuffled forward, hovering where the waves were at their lowest. This far out of the water, his tentacles were splayed haphazardly around him, some turned so Kurogane glimpsed rows upon rows of round white suckers.

He shrugged. "Maybe. If I can't find the stones elsewhere."

"Fair enough," Fai said, but he drooped a little, began his awkward shuffle back into the sea. "It was nice meeting you."

"Wait up." Kurogane stepped forward, moonstones tucked carefully away in his backpack. He swung the bag so it was in front of him, unzipped it, and pulled the box of onigiri out. "Here, take this."

Blue eyes grew wide; Fai tilted his head in surprise, staring between Kurogane and his lunch box. "Don't you want the rest of that?"

"You got seawater and sand all over it," he said. It was true, but he would have eaten the rice balls anyway if he got hungry enough. As it was, hunger was just beginning to gnaw in his stomach.

Slowly, Fai reached forward, took the clear plastic box into his hands. He cradled it to his chest. "Thank you."

Kurogane shrugged. "I should be going."

"Okay."

Fai was watching when he walked to the edge of the boulders and pulled his sandals off, finding footholds with his hands and feet. It was only when he made it halfway to the rocky, blunt end of the headland that he thought to say, "Don't hold that underwater unless you've finished the rice. It's not airtight. The balls will disintegrate if you soak them in water."

Fai's mouth fell open in surprise. He looked down at the box, then back at Kurogane, and nodded. Kurogane watched as he pried the box open, carefully took a rice ball and fitted it into his mouth, chewing.

He waved when he got to the very end of the cliff—there was nothing else to say. Fai waved back, gave a tiny smile.

The hidden beach was behind his back and out of sight a moment later, and Kurogane missed the way Fai sagged back into the sea, his smile slipping entirely off his face.

* * *

Dinner that night was, inexplicably, seasoned baby octopuses. They were red and shiny and Kurogane stared at them in the blue-glazed common dish on the dining table, feeling his stomach twist.

"Aren't you hungry?" Tomoyo asked, kicking his leg while their mother was busy in the kitchen. "You ate the onigiri I made, didn't you?"

"I gave them away," he answered.

She blinked at him, dark eyes solemn on her pale face. "I've never known you to give food away."

Kurogane tore his eyes away from the octopuses, scooped some marinated eel for himself.

"I've never seen you not attack the octopus dish, either," Tomoyo said.

"Tch." He looked away uncomfortably, lifted his bowl of rice to his mouth and shoveled food in so he didn't have to talk.

"Something happened."

Kurogane chewed, swallowed, shrugged. "I gave the onigiri to an octopus, all right?"

Tomoyo stared at him, blinked. "I never knew octopuses ate rice."

"Me neither."

They ate in silence for a while until their mother joined them, brimming with news on their father's business trip, and the topic was dropped. Kurogane hoped they didn't have to revisit it for some time yet.

* * *

The second time Kurogane visited that beach, there was no one to be found in the sea cave—just a damp kelp nest and the accompanying treasure hoard. So, he left a fresh box of onigiri on one of the higher, flatter rocks and left. (His previous lunchbox was now filled with little pieces of glass and other junk. He'd had half a mind to take it with him to wash and fill with more food, but decided against it at the last minute.)

The third time he visited, Fai all but threw himself at Kurogane.

"You came back!" the octopus cried, the top of his grey, bulbous body narrowing and paling so his blond hair and human features returned. He wore the hugest smile, and even in the dimness of the sea cave, his deep blue eyes were sparkling. Kurogane watched as Fai's skin took on a solid shade of cream, and his arms split away from the rest of his lean, narrow torso.

"Get off me," he said, shook the cold, wet octopus away. "I just thought I'd drop by to see if you were done with the lunchboxes."

"Oh." Fai sagged a little, but he was still smiling anyway. He eased backwards, wrapping thin tentacles around a neighboring rock and hauling himself onto that. The wet skin on his tentacles turned speckled almost immediately, to match the rock surface. "Are you going to be staying long this time?"

Kurogane shrugged, sat himself on a nearby rock. The creature reached out for the opaque red box he handed over, pried it carefully open to look at its contents. This time, Kurogane had filled it with some food from home—sweet omelette, marinated eel, some slices of raw fish (he'd had to put this lunchbox on ice so the fish wouldn't go bad), and a couple varieties of pickles and dried seaweed.

"Something new!" Fai smiled and prodded the spongy yellow oblong of egg. It squished beneath his finger; he picked it up eagerly, took a bite of it, chewed. A great smile burst across his face. "Mmm!"

Kurogane took the chance to glance around the cave again. Not much had changed. The kelp nest glistened wetly as the waves retreated from it, and Fai's treasure pile had expanded into the second lunch box. He'd apparently gone out and found more rocks and seaweed to fill it with; Kurogane thought he saw a little crab poking around in the new box.

"Eurgh!" The next response had Kurogane looking back. Fai was holding one of the red tuna slices away from his face, gagging. "Fish?"

He frowned in consternation. "Don't you eat fish? That's raw fish, with the bones and skin removed."

"I don't like fish." Fai squirmed on his rock, held the offending slice between thumb and forefinger, away from himself. "Do you want it back?"

"Sure." Kurogane reached over and took the cool, soft delicacy. It had a set of teeth marks in it, but was otherwise not mangled, so he popped it into his mouth. (He hoped the _sotus_ wasn't carrying any sort of spit-borne virus.) The raw tuna was sweet, cool and crisp against his tongue; he chewed and swallowed, and Fai watched him with a shudder and grimace.

"That's nasty," he said. "Fish is... not good."

"What do you eat, then?" Kurogane stared at him, puzzled.

"Crabs, shellfish, you know." Fai waved dismissively, poked at the other slices of fish in his lunchbox. "Are the rest of these fish as well?"

"Yeah."

"I don't want them."

Kurogane leaned over on his rock, wiped his hand on his shirt, and turned his palm up towards Fai. The octopus pinched the slices out of his lunchbox and dropped them into the bowl of Kurogane's hand. "Fish and shellfish don't taste that different, do they?" he asked between bites of fish.

Fai had moved on to the marinated eel. He took a tentative nibble on it, decided that it wasn't too bad, and fit half the slice into his mouth, chewing slowly. "Fish is nasty. They taste fishy."

Kurogane shrugged, finished the last of Fai's unwanted raw fish. "Are you able to turn fully into a human?"

The octopus looked at him quizzically. "I don't know. I think I can't. I've tried, but it doesn't come out right."

"Do you get many legs, or does the transformation just stop at your tentacles?"

Fai flushed a deep purple. "One doesn't talk about one's tentacles just like that, Kuro-pervert."

He blinked at Fai. This wasn't in Tomoyo's book about mythical sea creatures. He'd looked it up right before his visit and read the entire section on the _sotus_. "Aren't they just your limbs? Why can't you talk about your tentacles?"

The creature whined and covered his face with his hands, turning away. His skin burned dark between his fingers. "Kuro-pon, you don't talk to your friends that way."

He scoffed, folded his arms across his chest. "Fine, we won't talk about that."

It made him wonder, though, how Fai could wave his tentacles around and actually be shy when they were mentioned. The octopus relaxed, peeked at him through gaps in his fingers.

"Eat your food," he said. "I don't have all day."

"Are you leaving soon?"

He shrugged. "I'll have to get home at some point."

Fai pulled a sad face, but obliged by picking up a slice of dried seaweed, flipping it over and examining it before pushing his pink tongue out. The seaweed clung to his tongue; surprise flickered through his face. Fai ended up cramming it into his mouth, chewing on it a long time before he finally swallowed.

"Don't like it?"

"It tastes like kelp. But it's dry. I don't always eat kelp."

"Guess we'll stick to rice balls, huh."

Fai grabbed the other half of his omelette, chewed happily on it. "I like this best." He set the remnants of egg down, popped a pickle into his mouth, and just as suddenly spat it out, his face scrunched up into an expression of disgust. He shuddered. "What's that?"

"Pickle. I'll eat that." Kurogane stretched his hand out; Fai held the lunchbox up while he took the remaining pieces of pickle, both the yellow cucumber pickles and the pink preserved ginger slices. "I won't include that next time."

"There'll be a next time?" Fai brightened, shivered when Kurogane ate a couple slices of cucumber pickles. "You'll visit me again?"

"I visit the beach," Kurogane pointed out. "I collect those stones."

That he'd already combed this particular beach twice wasn't something he'd mention to Fai. He was positive that there weren't many more moonstones to be found here, and he'd have to move on to the next beach if Tomoyo had a sudden craving for large numbers of those things all at once.

Fai drooped again. He chewed dully on what was left of his marinated eel. "I saw you'd left the rice the other day. That was very nice of you."

Kurogane looked away.

"Kuro-sir is shy." Fai cleaned out the last scraps of food from the plastic box, handed it back to Kurogane. "Kuro-rin likes to be stared at, but he won't admit it."

"The hell?" He turned to glower at the idiot, snatched the box back. "I bring you food, and this is how you respond?"

Fai grinned. His tentacles peeled away from the base of his torso; he wrapped them around shorter rocks to lower himself into the ebb and flow of the waves, splashed around in the water. "Kuro-tan is a shy, strong man."

Kurogane shoved the lunchbox back into his backpack, left both on a high rock before he threw himself onto the wet sand, which sucked at his sandals as he chased after Fai. The octopus wailed, wide grin plastered on his face, and his tentacles rippled rapidly beneath his body, bringing him deeper into the water.

"Are you trying to catch me, Kuro-pyuu?" He waved. The next thing Kurogane knew, Fai had ducked underwater. His tentacles billowed up around him, and he was jetting forward suddenly, tentacles trailing behind him as he shot towards Kurogane, his trajectory curving so he circled around Kurogane's calves like an oversized cat.

When Fai broke the surface, his hair was sopping wet, and he rubbed his face against Kurogane's thigh, purring like a domesticated animal.

"Kuro-pyon has the nicest legs." His hands came up to trail lightly just above Kurogane's knees; he smiled slyly, blue eyes glittering in the bright sunlight.

Kurogane fumbled for words, couldn't find anything appropriate except, "Fuck you."

Fai just _smiled_. "Now, we've talked about that before, Kuro-rin. Don't make empty promises."

He swore and attempted to kick the octopus off, storming away. Fai released him entirely save for one tentacle around his knee; it was this connection that pulled the creature along, despite his valiant attempts to free himself from Fai. Kurogane decided that he should leave before the stupid blond drove him insane.

"Are you leaving already?" Fai released his leg, crawling forward in the knee-deep water. "I'm so lonely here, Kuro-moo."

"So make friends." Kurogane looked at him, challenging.

Fai pouted. "It's not as easy as you think. I don't think you have many friends either, Kuro-grumpy."

Kurogane did not, so he chose to keep quiet instead of proving the octopus right. He made his way back into the sea cave, sighing when he stepped out of the awfully hot sun. "I need to look for more of those stones. You could help me with that."

"Well." The blond lingered at the mouth of his cave, knotted a couple of his tentacles together. "Surely you're doing well enough searching for them all by your lonesome self."

"I'm not. I've cleared this beach of them already, if you haven't noticed."

Fai pouted. "You visited the other day while I was out. That isn't fair."

"I didn't ask you to leave while I was here."

"But— But where are you going to go if there aren't any more stones here for you?" Fai's voice had taken on a pleading note; he curled his tentacles around wave-splashed rocks and pulled himself closer to Kurogane, graceful in his home. "You aren't— You'll still visit, right?"

Kurogane had reached his backpack by this point. He picked it up, stared down at Fai, running over the options he'd come up with. "I visit a number of beaches for the moonstones. Maybe you might know of some that aren't visited by people. We could meet at one of those."

Fai bit his lip. "I... I suppose I do know of some. But I don't know if you'll be able to reach all of them. It's not like they're a short distance from here. Some of them are kind of far."

If he were to obtain a canoe, or some sort of row boat... Kurogane thought of asking Tomoyo to help with the cost of something like that—he was doing this for her sake, after all. "Maybe," he said eventually. "I'll think about it."

* * *

 **A/N:** _Soo... If you guys want to see anything from this particular universe, feel free to suggest it! I'll write whatever interests me. :) Comments are always appreciated!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Finally edited the second part of this series. Happy New Year? :)_

 _I suppose Fai has some sort of excretory passages that neither he nor Kurogane know very much about. (Octopus urine is very concentrated though!) The name Sotus was invented; first half comes from "sotong", which is Malay for "squid", and the second half was random, but you could maybe track it down to "Octopus" ;)_

 _Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and its characters do not belong to me._

* * *

 **moonstones and tentacles**

 **Part 2**

It so happened that Kurogane was around the area. Really. He had driven two, maybe three hours, but _yes_ , he happened to be in the area. Like a hundred miles was "in the area", but whatever.

He hauled the milk crate and backpack along with him, clambering over rocks that were starting to look familiar. It wasn't exactly his fourth time on this beach—he wasn't here on a hunt. He was merely here to collect some things and drop some things off, that was all. If he found moonstones, so much the better, but today wasn't one of those days.

Kurogane crossed the tide-darkened sand of the second beach, scanning the glittering bob of waves for a familiar blond head. He found nothing. So he waded into shallow water, crate under his arm, and stepped carefully into the dim cave, allowing his eyes to adjust to the lack of light within.

"Hello?"

There was no movement in the cave, save for the echoing splash of seawater on smooth rock. He picked his way between the jut of rocks to where the tide rushed gently through the kelp nest, wetting it with little gurgles and splashes. It seemed empty. He looked closer, remembering the way the octopus had disguised itself as a rock, bringing his face close to the lumps of brown-black seaweed—

Something cold and wet hit his face, and there was a yelp. Kurogane winced.

"Don't stick things in my eye, you idiot—"

"Kuro-pervert!" Fai's head appeared in the next moment, and he was scrambling away, mostly-octopus, save for the blond hair and pale skin that had pushed out from the top of his bulbous mass. "What were you doing, putting your face so close to my tentacles?!"

He winced and wiped at his eyes with his free hand. "How was I supposed to know those were your damn tentacles? I couldn't see a thing!"

"Well, my tentacles were there, so. I thought you saw them, you were staring so _hard_." The rest of his body had lightened and stretched into arms and chest and abdomen, and he was perched on the other end of his nest, fingers squeezing the life out of innocent seaweed. Fai's tentacles rippled around him; he frowned suspiciously at Kurogane. "Well?"

Kurogane scoffed, looked around the cave. Everything looked like how he'd left it a week or so ago, except there was only one lunchbox in Fai's hoard, instead of two. There were fewer plastic soldiers today, too. "Tch. It's not like I was here for much. I thought I'd check up on you."

The octopus leaned forward, golden eyebrows raised. "Check on me? Whatever for?"

He shrugged uncomfortably. "Heard there was a storm in this area. I wasn't— I thought you might need a box for your things."

He set the milk crate down.

Fai's blue eyes grew round. "Kuro-rin was worried about me?" The widest smile split his face, and he hauled himself forward, eager hands reaching out to examine the crate Kurogane had brought with him. "Really?"

"I just happened to be in this area."

"But you brought me a gift!" The smile never left Fai's face. He picked the plastic crate up, peering into it. "I've seen these before."

"I thought you could put your things in here if you don't want to lose them." Kurogane scanned the back of the cave. "There's that rock shelf at the back, if you can reach it—"

"Kuro-tan is such a gentleman!" Fai set the crate aside and threw himself at Kurogane, wrapping damp arms around his legs. "It wasn't that big a storm, you know. I cleaned up fine, I've been here some time." Fai imitated his shrug. "Some things go missing. That always happens during a storm."

He shook the creature off. "Doesn't mean you should be without a secure place to store your things."

"Kuro-pon cares about me!" the idiot sang. Kurogane swatted at his head; he slipped away, curled his tentacles around the box. "He brings me presents!"

"Say that one more time, and I'll stop." He frowned at Fai.

Fai stopped singing, but the smile never left his lips. He turned to study the back of the cave, matching the dimensions of the box to the rock shelf Kurogane had been thinking about. "I think the box will fit... but I don't think I can reach it, Kuro-min. It's kind of high up."

Kurogane looked between the octopus and the shelf. It was a little lower than eye-level from where he was standing. If Fai were to perch himself on a rock, he'd be able to reach it just fine. There were handholds leading up to it as well, though he didn't know if Fai could haul himself up walls—he didn't know if octopuses his size could do that. "Maybe if you're able to change fully into a human, you'd reach it."

Fai pursed his lips in thought. "I suppose I'll have to give it a try."

"Sure."

"You'll have to look away. I don't know if I can. It's embarrassing."

"Okay." Kurogane left the crate where it was, crossing over to some taller rocks a few yards away and sitting on them, back towards Fai. While he waited, he pulled his water bottle out, took a sip. There was green tea and some food, too, though he supposed they'd have to resolve this first—Fai didn't seem to want to put off knowing. He couldn't deny that he was curious, himself. Tomoyo had raised an eyebrow when he borrowed the rest of her books on mythical creatures, so he'd switched to looking for information on the internet.

"I, um, I think. I think I managed to— This feels really weird, Kuro-rin!" Fai mumbled.

Kurogane turned around, blinked when he saw the full, pale figure of Fai. There were legs to complete the rest of his torso, now, and they were drawn up to his chest, thin and pale like his arms.

"I can't move them. They... they can only go one way?" Fai scrunched his face up, prodded at his knees with his fingers. He shuddered.

"What does it feel like with the tentacles?" Kurogane asked carefully.

The _sotus_ pouted, like he expected. "I don't talk about my tentacles, Kuro-pervert. But... they sort of move on their own. Combining them into legs... it's too much. It feels like my legs are trying to go everywhere at once, but they can't!"

Kurogane went over to the nest and extended a hand. "Grab hold, and get those legs under you. You'll figure it out from there."

Fai's cold fingers curled around his. Slowly, he shifted his weight around, first onto his other hand, before easing his legs beneath him.

"It's like moving your arms, isn't it?" Kurogane tapped his thumb on the back of Fai's hand. "I think you'll get the hang of it."

"But my arms are different. They're part of my body, not my tentacles." Fai frowned, biting his lip in concentration. He wobbled as he slowly rose to his feet, and winced again. "This is really tiring, Kuro-pon, how do you stand without falling over?"

"Huh. I'd never thought of that. You're a lot heavier outside the water because there isn't buoyancy lifting you up."

"I'm sure I knew that." Fai stuck his tongue out. "It's just... tiring."

The blond was on his feet now, legs straight. In a fully-human form, he was thin and tall, almost as tall as Kurogane, and he could reach the rock shelf easily. The transformation would be the main obstacle to storing anything on the shelf, though Kurogane supposed he had no real need for more storage space, at least for now. There were some boxes in his backpack that he'd been thinking of handing over, however.

Without warming, Fai's knees buckled. He flailed; Kurogane reached over to grab him, and ended up with an armful of octopus, whose legs were splitting back into his numerous, slithering tentacles. Fai was a little paler than usual; he groaned and collapsed against Kurogane, sliding limply down his front and leaving a trail of saltwater behind. "I'm tired."

"Guess we aren't doing anything about that shelf just yet." Kurogane sat down on the edge of the kelp nest with a grimace—Fai was clinging bodily to him, and he did not seem to be letting go anytime soon. Seawater pressed wetly into his shorts.

"Kuro-myu is so warm." Fai smiled and rubbed his face against Kurogane's shoulder. He was once again reminded of an overgrown cat, and he wasn't sure if this was proper behavior for a _sotus_ at all. Perhaps Fai was just an odd one out, period. "Maybe you can stay and be my pet."

" _What?_ "

A crafty smile sneaked onto Fai's face. "My crab ran away. I think you saw him the last time. The storm came and his box floated away... and I want a replacement. Maybe you can stay here and be my pet, Kuro-woo."

"I'm not your pet." He leveled an intimidating stare at the octopus. "Find something else."

"But you're warm!"

"Still doesn't mean I'm your pet." Kurogane huffed, shrugged the octopus away. "Plenty of shellfish out there. You can talk to them too, can't you?"

"They're boring," Fai whined. "All they talk about is the water temperature. It's _hot, hot, hot, warm, oh I need some food, hot, cold, warm._ They're better off in my stomach."

"Another octopus?"

"You can't expect me to share my home with another octopus!" Fai cried, aghast. Kurogane stared blankly at him. "This is my territory!"

"You're letting me into your territory."

"Because I like you." Fai stared at him for a moment, thought about what he said, and flushed. "Well, I like you, and crabs, and shrimp."

"I'm not some animal!" Kurogane spluttered. "Not food, either!"

The octopus was wearing that sly smile again. He crawled over to Kurogane, tapped a finger on his chest. "Well, you could still be my prey, Kuro-pin."

"I won't be your prey." Kurogane sighed, opened his backpack, and pulled a lunchbox out. Before the idiot could say another word, he'd shoved a rice ball in his mouth. "Shut up and eat."

Fai's eyes had grown wide, but he fell silent, chewing and wearing the silliest smile that morning.

.

It hadn't taken long to split the food between them. As it turned out, Fai wasn't a fan of green tea ("It's bitter and tastes like plants, Kuro-tan!"), although he was very partial to the donut that had got a little squashed in Kurogane's backpack. Kurogane waved towards the milk crate.

"What if there's more of those? We can build something for you to climb on. That way, you can store things you can't bear to lose during a storm."

Fai tilted his head, looked between the single blue milk crate and the rock shelf out of his reach. "Are you volunteering to build it?"

Kurogane shrugged. "If you want it enough, I guess."

"That's very nice of you." Fai grinned, wrapped his arms around Kurogane's. There were still bits of sugar stuck to the corners of his mouth.

"You're getting sugar on me," Kurogane said, shaking him off. "It's all over your damn face."

Fai frowned, flicked a pink tongue out. "Is it still there?"

"Yeah. Reach further out."

"Like this?" He licked again, and Kurogane sighed.

"No, it's here." He reached up to rub the sugar off, though before he could swipe it on his shorts, Fai caught his wrist.

"You aren't wasting that, are you? It's delicious!"

And so Kurogane found himself with an octopus-creature licking his finger clean. He cleared his throat, glanced away. "I should be going."

"Already?" Fai pushed his lower lip out and clung to him harder, getting more seawater on his damp clothes. "I was just thinking I need to do something for you. You've been so nice to me, Kuro-moo."

It hadn't really occurred to him to expect something from the _sotus_ in return. "I suppose. If you want."

"Can you swim?" Fai asked suddenly, his deep sapphire eyes lighting up. "I could bring you to the next beach."

"Aren't you tired from the transformation?" Kurogane glanced at the tide. It wasn't exactly low tide right now, but. It wouldn't hurt to look through another beach for more moonstones.

"It's fine if I crawl. Crawling doesn't take as much energy as swimming." The creature beamed at him. "It's a nice beach. Lots of rock pools. I found my crab there."

There was still some time before sundown, and he didn't have to be anywhere early tomorrow morning. "Sure," Kurogane said. He pulled a couple of plastic bags out of his backpack, zipped it up and climbed over large rocks to the shelf at the back of the cave. "Are we going now?"

"If you want." Fai was watching him, soaking his tentacles in the knee-deep water at the mouth of the cave. "Aren't you bringing that along?"

"No. There's things in here that'll go bad in the water."

"Like food?" The octopus hauled himself through the water and onto the rocks, making his way over to Kurogane. "The do-nut didn't taste as good after I dropped it."

"Not like that." Kurogane paused with one hand on his backpack, wondering how Fai would react to technology. "I have a phone. It dies if it goes into the water."

Fai cocked his head, frowned. "A fawn?"

They had time to kill before the low tide; Kurogane figured that he could show Fai his old-ish smartphone. All silliness aside, the creature seemed to be rather intelligent. He fished the phone out of his bag, took a seat on a rock next to Fai's kelp nest. "This is a phone. I use it to talk to other people."

"How?" Fai took it into his hands, turned it over and upside down, scrutinizing it. When Kurogane pushed on the unlocking button and a picture of a ninja painting lit the screen, Fai gasped.

"Don't drop it into the water," he cautioned.

"I won't, Kuro-silly." Fai cradled the phone gently in his hands, face lit with the pale yellow glow of the display.

It took a while to explain its superficial functions to the creature—things like numbers and contacts and calendars, and email and Facebook.

"Why do you have to talk to so many people? Are you very important?" Fai asked.

"No. It's just habit to keep contact with people, I guess." Kurogane frowned. It had occurred to him that Fai's network was far smaller than his. "Sometimes people want to talk to me."

"To say hello?" Fai brightened. "Lots of people like saying hi to the grumpy Kuro-rin, don't they? Do you say hello back?"

"That, among other things."

"Can I say hi to someone too? With this?" Fai held the phone up, eagerness bright in his eyes.

There wasn't anyone he really wanted Fai to talk to—Tomoyo would be a decent first choice, but he wanted to keep Fai secret for now. He was saved from having to decide, however, because the phone suddenly buzzed in Fai's hands.

"Kuro—" He glanced at Kurogane in alarm. "It moved! It's moving!"

Kurogane glanced at the screen. _Unknown caller._ Probably a telemarketer of some sort. He was reaching over to hit the red button on the screen when Fai's thumb pushed into the green one, and the call went live. Kurogane winced, took the phone over. He figured it wouldn't hurt to answer the call.

"Hello?"

"Hello, I'm a representative from the Saku—"

"I'm not interested," he said, pulling the phone away from his ear. Fai stared between him and the phone, whose darkened screen had gone bright again.

Before he could hit the 'end call' button, Fai took the phone from his hands, stuck it to his own face. "Hello?"

Kurogane winced. "You're holding it upside down."

Fai blinked, turned it around. "Hello?" The expression on his face melted to one of great surprise when he heard the sales rep answer. He looked up at Kurogane, mouth hanging open. "Kuro-wan! It's talking to me!"

He shrugged. "Yeah, well. Just don't agree to anything he says."

Fai pressed the phone close to his ear, listened intently. "What's a supplement?" he asked, paused for a long time while the caller explained it. "Vitamins? What's that? Do I need it?"

Kurogane sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose.

"But I eat enough food!" Fai exclaimed, his pitch rising. "I've eaten crabs and shrimps and kelp all my life and I'm still healthy as a sea turtle!"

Apparently the caller didn't think so.

"Erectile— What?" Fai spluttered, glanced at Kurogane in horror, then looked away. His cheeks were flushed purple. "No, _you_ listen, you human, I don't need your blistering, barnacle-crusted supplements, I have a good and healthy sex life and I'm not speaking to any boyfriend and that's that!"

He tore the phone away from his ear and glared at it, and Kurogane snatched it out of his hands before he decided to throw it into the lapping waves. He swiped a thumb across the 'end call' button, looked wryly at Fai. "Trying to sell you pills, huh?"

The offended indignation on Fai's face was surprisingly funny. Kurogane tried not to smile, and failed.

"Don't you laugh at me! Kuro-mean!" Fai huffed, folded his arms across his chest. "That person was so _rude_!"

"I usually ignore calls like that." Kurogane bit his smile down. "That's why you don't answer every call you get."

Fai huffed, turned his back to Kurogane. "He dared to say I don't get enough vitamins! The nerve of him! Talking about my sex life!"

"I don't see you bringing other octopuses back."

The skin on Fai's neck darkened. "I'm territorial. I don't bring octopuses back." He turned to look challengingly at Kurogane.

Kurogane almost asked if he brought humans or other creatures to his nest, but decided against it. It wasn't his business. He waved the phone at Fai. "Done looking at this?"

"No!" Fai reached out for it, took it carefully into his hands.

"Check with me before you push any buttons on the screen."

"Okay." Fai studied the array of icons on the home screen, pointed at one. "This?"

"It's a camera. It takes pictures." Seeing the look on the octopus's face, Kurogane took the phone back, used it to capture a picture of the mouth of the cave. Fai watched on in fascination. He was as delighted as a child when he next laid his hands on the phone, attempting to take pictures of his things.

"They're all black," he whined, turned to Kurogane with his lips curved downward.

"It needs light. The brighter something is, the better the pictures you get. Here." Kurogane took the phone back, waded out into the open. "Smile."

He took a picture of Fai, handed the phone back. Fai grinned when he saw the photo.

"Smile, Kuro-puu! I want a picture of you!"

"I'm not smiling."

"Bend over so I can make you smile!" Fai beckoned him towards the water, waved the phone at him. "Do you need me to show you how to smile?"

He chose not to acknowledge any of that.

The octopus made a face at him, crawled around on his rippling tentacles, taking pictures of the sky, the bluffs, the waves, and what was probably a hundred pictures of Kurogane.

"You're going to deplete the battery like that," he said.

"But. But. Can I take a picture of us?" Fai smiled brightly at him. "Please?"

Kurogane sighed, crouched down in the water so he was roughly the same height as the octopus. "Fine."

He showed Fai how to switch to the secondary camera, refused to smile even as Fai made a hundred different faces in the selfies he snapped.

Funny how a sea creature took to selfies as easily as that.

"That's enough," Kurogane said, after Fai tried grabbing his face from the other side to pull his lips into a smile. "I need to conserve some battery life in case there is actually an emergency."

"Okay." Fai handed the phone over, splashed around in the water as they returned to his sea cave. "That was fun!"

"Only because you've never seen something like that before." Kurogane scrolled through the pictures Fai took, raising an eyebrow at the handful or so that Fai had sneaked of his ass earlier. Was he not aware that the photos could be accessed at a later time?

Fai grinned up at him. "I don't think I could get tired of something like that."

"Sure." With his disposition, Kurogane was certain that Fai would grow tired of the gadget soon enough. How did he even stay around in one spot for so long?

"Do you want to head to the next beach?" the octopus asked, when Kurogane had tucked his phone back into his backpack. He lifted a few tentacles from the receding tide to examine their little circular suckers. (Kurogane was oddly reminded of various women checking their nails.) "The tide looks like it's low enough. I don't think you'll have to swim very much to get there, but you can always hold on to me if you need to."

Kurogane shrugged, patted the pocket of his shorts to make sure that the plastic bags were there. "Sure."

The octopus beamed at him, beckoned for him to follow. "Come on, then!"

They—or rather, Kurogane—waded out along the cliff where Fai's sea cave was. Fai had little difficulty moving through the shallow water, finding footholds in the cliff to haul himself forward, while Kurogane followed after him. He waded until the water was chest-level, and the ocean waves buffeted hard enough at him that he would slam into the rocky, weathered headland if he weren't careful, before following Fai's example of clinging to the rocks.

This headland was far less easy to maneuver around than the previous one had been. Where the other headland had fallen boulders at its base to aid in climbing, this one had none, and waves crashed hard into its vertical, striated wall, sending glittering, wet spray above their heads. Kurogane squinted to keep the saltwater out of his eyes. Overhead, fluffy white clouds were scattered through the sky, and seagulls honked and circled. It was a good day to be exploring—the waves weren't overbearing, and the heat of the day was starting to cool off a little.

The sea floor sloped off sharply beneath him when they got to the blunt end of the cliff; Kurogane was forced to begin swimming, which was easier said than done when he was subject to the push and pull of strong waves forcing him towards the cliff.

"Kuro-rin? Are you doing okay?" Fai looked over at him in concern, fingers curled into what he could grasp of the cliff. His tentacles were underwater, and he wasn't doing that well with getting through the beating of the waves, either.

"I'm fine," he said, got a mouthful of water for his efforts. He spat it out, bobbing on the water and trying to duck beneath the waves so they'd have less power over him.

There were lean, wiry arms wrapped tight around him in the next moment, a cold, smooth chest pressed to his, and slick tentacles brushed up along his thighs, before they disappeared suddenly, and water rushed all around them. They slowed down for a moment; Kurogane thought about breaking the surface for air, and the tentacles billowed against him once more.

Another rush of water, then another, and Kurogane found himself tangled up with Fai in shallow water, waves breaking around them.

He was coughing and spluttering, and wiping water from his eyes. "What was that?"

Fai disentangled himself, flopped backwards into the water. He was breathing hard, gleaming blue eyes half-lidded, and Kurogane watched the creature catch his breath while he did the same. "I was helping you, Kuro-clueless," Fai said between huffs. "You make swimming very difficult."

"You said you weren't going to swim if you could help it." The _idiot!_ Hadn't he mentioned that it was tiring to swim? "I wasn't in any real danger."

"Well, pardon me if I thought you were going to drown." Fai made a face at him, rolled up onto his tentacles. "You went under. I've seen your kind go under and never come back up."

"You were worried?" The thought sent a burst of warmth through his chest. Then, some uncertainty. "I've heard of people dying when they weren't expecting to be dragged out to sea."

"There is that." Fai looked away uneasily, shuffled further up onto the beach. "But I thought you'd be interested in this place—isn't it beautiful?"

It was. This was more a pebble beach than the previous two, which had been sandy. Smooth, grey rocks of different shades made up the shoreline, and he could see the darkened stretch of pebble where the high tide had been. Further in, there were stretches of flat rock, and glassy surfaces of little rock pools hidden along the beach.

"Has anyone died back there?" The question slipped out of his mouth before he really had time to think, and Fai grimaced.

"Don't talk about morbid things like that, Kuro-strange. We're here now. Go on and get your stones." The octopus waved dismissively at him, and the closed-off look about his eyes told Kurogane that this particular discussion was over. He couldn't help but have his own theories, however.

He got to his feet, pulled the waterlogged plastic bags out of his pocket. His phone would definitely not have survived that dive. Fai followed him; from the corner of his eye, Kurogane noticed that the octopus didn't do so in a straight line, but wove through the swash in a way that didn't make sense. Sometimes, he'd turn sharply, and at other times, it almost seemed as if he was taking large detours to avoid something unpleasant.

He looked closer, and realized that the areas the octopus avoided contained bits of brown rock. With white swirls. There were more of them in the sea than on the pebble beach, which was where he'd been looking at first. So, he stopped and turned, splashing back into the water to pick out the moonstones that Fai had seen but neglected to tell him about. "You never told me about these."

Fai's smile was a little too bright. "That would take the fun out of the search, wouldn't it, Kuro-lazy?"

"You're avoiding them."

The creature shrugged.

"Do you avoid them because you simply don't like them?" Kurogane stepped forward, still bent double as he picked a handful of stones in quick succession, dropped them into his bag with heavy _clack_ s as they bounced off each other. "Or do they have innate properties that aren't that good for you?"

"What would you say if I told you it was a little bit of both?" Fai's smile was back, and it was enigmatic. He wasn't following Kurogane quite as closely now. "The view from back here is very nice, Kuro-strong!"

He whipped his head back to find Fai grinning and fluttering his lashes, in a way that had him facing forward in a great hurry. Octopuses did not behave like that. Well, maybe _sotus_ did, but there was no literature on their behavioral patterns, only that they could change shapes and breathe underwater, and they fell in love with princesses and took them into the ocean. The last of which Kurogane was starting to have a bad feeling about.

"Your kind don't kidnap humans, do they?" he asked suddenly.

Fai set himself upright in the water, dangling a crab from a pebble-grey tentacle. He laughed. "If they were as handsome as you, maybe!"

Kurogane raised an eyebrow.

Fai waved his crab around. "We do know that humans don't survive for long underwater, you know. We aren't stupid. Most of my kind don't live so far up on the surface, or so close to civilization."

"So, why do you?"

"Maybe I've been waiting for someone to take me away," Fai sang, and he laughed, flopping back into the ocean with a great splash. He lifted his head to look at Kurogane. "Or maybe because human food is nice. We don't have things like that underwater, you know. Fish is boring."

"If you could fully shift into a human, you could live on land."

Fai shook his head. "Can't. I need the water to survive."

"I've seen you move out of water."

"Not for long periods." The creature shuffled closer, held the crab out with a smile. "Want a snack?"

It was tiny, a quarter the size of his palm, and Kurogane was doubtful that it was worth his while eating unless he had it deep fried. "Keep it for yourself. I can't eat it like that."

Fai drew the creature back, set it on his shoulder and turned his head to watch as it crawled along damp, pale skin.

"But you've been living here long before you met me," Kurogane pointed out. The octopus's story didn't compute. "And you weren't expecting humans to come along to give you food. You're territorial."

The grin that stretched along Fai's mouth was slow and amused. "Kuro-clever is clever."

"You're keeping secrets."

"We all do. Don't you?" Fai sidled up to Kurogane, wound around his wet calves like an overgrown cat. "What are your secrets, Kuro-pon?"

He blinked. He didn't exactly have _secrets_ , per se. There were just things he didn't talk about, some because they weren't his things to talk about, like how his mom really did not like dirt in the house, or how his dad spent too long away from home, and things that were his to talk about but they weren't any of Fai's concern, like how he'd felt misunderstood in his younger days, how he'd been violent, to the point of hurting Tomoyo when she'd hardly done anything wrong.

There were regrets, too, but they were too heavy to be dug out of his chest and examined, let alone be shared with a creature he'd only met on a number of occasions.

"I wouldn't call them secrets," he said eventually. "They aren't things I really want to talk about."

"Then we have an understanding." Fai grinned and patted the back of his thigh. "Don't ask about mine, and I won't ask about yours."

"Fine."

He went on collecting the moonstones—there were enough of them that he could afford to be picky, enough that he could come back here for more, though the headland crossing was something he'd have to work on. They were reason enough to return here, he supposed. He probably Fai's help getting to this beach. Perhaps if he kept a simple raft, or a boat...?

"Was there a princess?" Kurogane asked suddenly, glancing over at Fai. The blond blinked up at him in a half-smile, a handful of little crabs sitting in his hair and a couple scrabbling on his shoulders. "We have a legend. There was a princess who was taken into the ocean to be the Sea King's bride."

"Ah." Fai's grin looked more like a grimace. "I can't imagine she was very happy, then."

"Do you know anything about it?" Kurogane scanned the rest of the beach. It was long, and he had no reason to comb it all today. "I've read it in some of the older books I found."

"There may have been a princess." The creature shrugged. A crab slipped onto his collarbone and fell back into the water with a splash. "We have lots of stories too, you know. There have been stories about beautiful womenfolk and— He pinched my _tentacle_ , the little blistering fireblight!"

Those last words were yelped; Fai thrust a hand into the water to grab at the offending crab, and the rest of the rest of the crabs on his hair and shoulders fell back in a disarray of wet _plop_ s. He made a high, choked squawk, plucked his hand out and tossed the crab far away, and scrambled back from the crab-infested patch of sea.

Kurogane had to make an effort not to smirk.

When Fai finally looked back at him, purple-faced and annoyed, he snorted. "That's what you get for playing with your food."

"I should play with you instead," Fai huffed. "At least you won't pinch me."

Well.

"I won't," Kurogane said. "I have no desire to be tossed into the sea."

The _sotus_ visibly brightened at that, and he knew to be wary when Fai crawled forward, a spark of interest glinting in his eyes. "Is that a challenge, Kuro-rin?"

"It isn't!"

But Fai had surged towards him, wild grin across his face, and Kurogane backed towards the shore, dropping his bag of moonstones before he moved away from it. It was a stupid move on hindsight, because Fai changed his course and came at him from the side without the moonstones, and grabbed at Kurogane's waist, hauling him towards the sea.

For how slender he looked, the octopus was surprisingly strong. He pulled hard enough that Kurogane stumbled into the surf, and as he stepped on a pile of loose rock and lost his balance with a flail and a curse, Fai pulled him close, so he splashed into the water next to the octopus.

"You sat on my tentacles!" Fai cried, discomfort flashing across his face. It was gone by the time Kurogane regained his bearings. Slick limbs wriggled out from underneath him; Fai was clambering into his lap and glowing with pride.

"I won!" he crowed. "I tossed you into the sea!"

It was a strange feeling being sat upon by an octopus, especially one as large as Fai. The tentacles occupied an area far wider than his hips, so the creature's weight was distributed, and Kurogane's clothes kept him from finding out what exactly was beneath the creature. He hadn't really thought about it until now, either, when Fai was shamelessly straddling him and some of his suckers were clinging onto Kurogane's thighs and calves.

Fai paused. "You taste salty. Good. Kind of sweet. Like... well, like a human."

Kurogane blinked at him. "What?"

The creature opened his mouth to answer, then seemed to realize the position they were in, or that his tentacles were touching Kurogane, or something, because he scrambled off, spots of color high on his cheeks. "Well, my— My tentacles. They taste."

"Oh." What was weirder than being tackled and straddled by an octopus was being told that he was being tasted as they were sitting there. He gulped, steered the topic in another direction. "You can taste underwater?"

Fai looked at him like he was an idiot. "Yes."

"I'm not an octopus. I wouldn't know," Kurogane snapped, affronted.

The other sniffed primly, turned away with his arms across his chest. "Well, I'm sure you're that great, human and all."

"You're a damn octopus. We're different."

"Stupid two-legs."

"Idiot."

"I should take you to the Sea King and declare my intentions to marry you," Fai said, looking back with a challenging jut to his lower lip.

"What."

The octopus's face lit up in delight. "Does Kuro-rinta have nothing to say to that? Did I win?"

"Hell no." He glared at Fai. "You took me by surprise. What the hell did you mean by that?"

"Nothing," Fai lilted, and he was crawling back over on those rippling, grey tentacles and grinning like a loon. "It was just a game!"

"So you throw random proposals at people as a game."

Fai's smile was decidedly catlike. "Maybe."

Kurogane sighed and rolled his eyes. He finally stood up from the water, heading over to where he'd dropped his bag of moonstones. "I can't figure you out."

The octopus grinned wider. "Is Kuro-min trying to figure me out?" He lingered for a bit, then followed a little ways behind. When Kurogane looked at him again, he had another little crab picking its way through his limp, damp hair. "Is he _interested_?"

"No," he said before he could think about it.

"Oh. Well." Fai looked away; Kurogane thought he saw the light in the other's face dim a little. He tensed, unsure what to do or how to react, but before he could get another word in, Fai was pulling the crab out of his hair, and he was crawling toward the headland they'd rounded before. "Do you have all the moonstones you want?"

"I think so." He glanced into his bag, knotted it up, then wrapped it in his second bag and knotted that, too.

"We should head back, then," Fai said, but there was a dull edge to his smile now, and Kurogane didn't know how to fix it. Did he say he was interested? But he wasn't— Fai was an octopus, and, well, things would never work out.

"We should," Kurogane said instead.

They waded back towards the rounded end of the headlands in silence, braving the waves, and Kurogane tied the bag of moonstones securely onto a wrist. Right before the ground fell away from his feet, Fai turned to him in the misty, roaring spray and asked, "I could swim you back around, if you want. It'll be a lot less risky."

He took his time to answer. "Okay."

Not so much because it was the right answer, but because he wanted to feel that sensation of swimming together again, and because Fai seemed to want it, too. The octopus smiled; he looped around Kurogane, wrapped long, thin arms around his chest. "I need you to hold the moonstones away. And take a deep breath."

Kurogane nodded, filled his lungs, and they were plunging below the surface, tentacles brushing the backs of his thighs before he and Fai were propelled forward. Fai's body was the temperature of the sea, he realized, and it felt... pleasant pressed together like that.

There were four bursts of speed before they broke the surface and collapsed in the shallow water a little ways from the sea cave. Kurogane got to his feet and shed the bag of moonstones, slipping his arms under Fai's and hauling him back to his cave.

Fai melted against the wet stones of the cave, still breathing hard. "You're heavy, Kuro-big."

"You didn't have to do that."

Fai just smiled. He stretched, shifted his tentacles. "You'll be back, right? It's getting late."

"Yeah. There's going to be a busy few weeks coming up, but I'll try my best," he said. Tomoyo would be content with his moonstone haul this time, but. He was certain she would want more. Either that, or he'd get her more as backup. Yeah.

He retrieved his backpack from the back of the cave, left the boxes he'd brought for Fai on one of the lower rocks. When he stepped back towards the entrance of the cave, Fai wrapped the end of a tentacle lightly around his ankle.

"I hope to see you soon," he said with a small smile.

"Same."

He could feel Fai's eyes on him as he collected his stones and made his way across the beach. Tomoyo would love to meet Fai. Fai would love to meet Tomoyo. But Kurogane was selfish, and he wanted to keep things as they were for longer, if he could.

* * *

 **A/N:** _anything you'd like to see from this universe? Thoughts? Comments? ;)_


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